Since this is a holiday weekend, and after the bombshell Spencer and Braswell revelation today, there’s not much else besides watching tropical storm Lee and Hurricane Katia this weekend.
I have several things to do in the home improvement realm that have been neglected while I work on WUWT and other projects, and I need to step away for a bit. I may update WUWT if something happens related to tropical weather, and guest authors are welcome to post. But I don’t plan to spend much time online this weekend.
Have a nice holiday weekend, see you all back here Tuesday.
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August signs
MIKE Ritchie, watching the severe weather conditions on America’s Eastern seaboard, tells us: “Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a Scottish summer.”
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/comment/ken-smiths-diary/the-diary-1.1120751
August signs
MIKE Ritchie, watching the severe weather conditions on America’s Eastern seaboard, tells us: “Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a Scottish summer.”
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/comment/ken-smiths-diary/the-diary-1.1120751
Can anybody recommend scientific literature on Younger Dryas? No CAGW trash, please. Thank you, Taras.
Solyndra!! Bring it up every chance you get. It’s the new Enron!!
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/276120/omb-and-solyndra-something-hide-andrew-stiles
Interesting discussion on the matter of Willis E’s question: “Was Irene, in fact, a hurricane?”
Two points to consider, one of which was made in the discussion of Willis. Damage was largely rain-related, not wind-related (max windspeeds were below Hurricane threshholds). Somebody (PDR?)pointed out that some damage related to tree-fall could be due to the absence of major windstorms in the last 6 years or so. More large aging trees, more trees susceptible to storm damage.
Here’s another angle. CO2 has been elevated (they all say) and CO2 promotes vegetation growth.
How much extra leaf growth has occurred as a result of elevated atmospheric CO2 content? How has that exceptional leaf growth contributed to the wind-cross-section of trees?
Just saying, but it seem reasonable that aging trees with lots of extra-large leaves might be susceptible to toppling in mediocre windstorms.
And all of the power loss in the eastern states was due to trees falling on power llines. Hmmmmm
Giant Chunk of Greenland Ice Set to Break Away
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/giant-chunk-of-greenland-ice-set-to-break-away-1960/
“An ice shelf is poised to break off from a Greenland glacier and float out to sea as an island twice the size of Manhattan, scientists say.
“I don’t know exactly when,” Jason Box, a climatologist with Ohio State Unversity’s Byrd Polar Research Center, told OurAmazingPlanet. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened today — or if it happened next summer.”
Just a year ago, in August 2010, the same glacier produced an even larger iceberg — a mass of ice four times the size of Manhattan, the largest in recorded Greenland history — yet researchers warn that the next spectacular break could have more-dire consequences.
Box said it’s not clear when the 62-square-mile (160 square kilometers) ice shelf, which is dangling from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, will detach from the mainland. “I think it’s more likely to occur during periods of melt, and that’s coming to an end, so I’m losing confidence it’s going to break this year,” Box said.”
I have posted to YouTube the video of the recent Australian debate on the question “Do We Really Need a Carbon Tax?”
My own take is that the side in favor didn’t really engage the issues. Ian Plimer is the only panelist who really addressed scientific issues, and was (as I would expect) dismissed out of hand with no substantive response by the opponent who followed. Lord Lawson did a respectable job on the negative side, although I thought he blundered early on by saying that anyone who believes CO2 is “pollution” should not be listened to. In some idealistic sense this could be true, but the assertion does seem to negate the possibility of dialogue or debate in the first place.
In any case, I thought it was a worthwhile debate. I was rather disgusted by the description given on the ABC _Big Ideas_ web page, which among other outrages called Plimer a “climate-denying geologist.” Here’s their description:
Do We Really Need a Carbon Tax?
23 Aug 2011, 11:00
Claiming that places like the ABC were not giving equal time to those who dissent from the prevailing science around the climate change debate, the conservative think tank The Institute of Public Affairs decided to host their own event in partnership with The Spectator Australia. The question they posed was straightforward and simple: “Do we really need a Carbon Tax?”
The local participants included a climate change researcher, a climate-denying geologist, plus former party leaders of both Liberal and a Labor. But, the star of the show was a British Lord – not Monckton, but former Thatcher-era Energy Minister, Nigel Lawson – who happens to be a real member of the House of Lords. (He is also father of celebrity cook, Nigela Lawson.)
Lord Lawson has spent the past decade warning of the perils of decarbonising the economy, arguing that government policies to replace relatively cheap carbon-based energy with substantially more expensive renewable energy amount to economic illiteracy of the worst order.
Chairing the debate was conservative commentator Tom Switzer.
Speakers For:
John Hewson is the former leader of the Liberal Party and an economic and financial expert with experience in academia, business, government and the financial system. His current position is chairman of insurance broking firm General Security Australia.
Benjamin McNeil is a senior fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.
Mark Latham is a Spectator Australia columnist and former federal Labor leader.
Speakers Against:
Lord Nigel Lawson is a former Thatcher-era Energy Minister and British Conservative chancellor. He is author of “An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming”.
Ian Plimer is a geologist at University of Adelaide and author of “Heaven & Earth”.
Gary Johns is associate professor at the Australian Catholic University and former federal Labor minister.
Chair:
Tom Switzer is a research associate at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney where he teaches undergraduate courses in American politics and Australian history. He is also editor of The Spectator Australia, published in London.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2011/08/23/3299165.htm
Happy Father’s Day to all fathers celebrating tomorrow (Sunday 4th).
Applicable in Australia, don’t know if anywhere else though.
Jim Cole says:September 2, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Just saying, but it seem reasonable that aging trees with lots of extra-large leaves might be susceptible to toppling in mediocre windstorms.
In my area, I think the fact that the utility company (PSNH) mostly stopped doing right-of-way tree maintenance several years ago is more significant. Since the PUC won’t penalize them for outages, it’s cheaper for them to skip expensive maintenance.
The Giants still suck, dagnabit!
Is it global warming?
I live in a country that has NOT experienced any man made climate change, How is it that we effect other countrys climates?
What about the Justice Department raids on guitar maker Gibson? I love the tone of a Gibson Thunderbird. Law was amended right before Obama comes into office…. DOJ has raided Gibson twice…. And they won’t tell Gibson what it is they are doing wrong!! We’ve got this administration criminalizing business and these kindergarten children are scratching heads wondering why $2 Trillion is sitting on the sidelines… Not counting the trillions pulled out of the market after Obama was nominated… and unemployment stays at 9%.
Mo Money Mo Problems
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Money_Mo_Problems
The gatekeeper that just resigned. Seamingly with little or noo scientific justification.
Who is paying him and who is standing behind him?
This here’s my new anti-AGW gun.
Click-pic trigger.
30 rounds anti-scaremongering
Stop action
Firing in 3,2,1
http://homepages.woosh.co.nz/zanzibar/9.html
I took off my training wheels and started a climate science thread over on a Microsoft web site if anyone wants some weekend amusement see here:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/Scientists-prove-Global-Warming-caused-by-the-sun-not-humans
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWiKvNDTjB4&w=500&h=405%5D
“It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.”
—A. Hodge
Dear Watts Up With That people,
I would like to invite everyone to contribute to the ‘list’ I am about to initiate.
It is a list of CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS .
In my reading I have come across many statements about and descriptions of Significant Climatic Events. I have found these in jouranls, autobiographies, diaries, letters and official communications. Taken in isolation they are merely interesting bits of historical detail but…with the aid of a bit of geographical software, several hundred or better still, several thousand of these be used to create a useful picture of climate variation. The period that interests me is from the end of the dark ages to the end of the 19th Century. (After that period newspapers and media provide sufficient information.)
The rules are simple.
1. Significant events only. Cold, warm, snow, heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms.
2. Identified author, date and location.
3. Publisher.
Example.
Fredreich Nietzsche. Basle, Switzerland, february 1874.
“We are having such fine warm days with plenty of sunshine and even deep coloured sunsets already.. *We have only had one day’s snow the whole winter*.
Published by The Soho Book Company.
Think of what we could do with several thousand of these!
Obviously there are limitations, vast areas of the world will not be covered but I’d be damned surprised if we couldn’t come up with a fairly comprehensive picture of European Weather over that period. Better than tree rings anyway.
I thank you for your interest.
The Solar Wind bz has tilted primarily north, and the gcr’s are once again climbing back up.
The SORCE spacecraft is showing some mighty strange readings. So much so, that the data and instrument are scheduled for a hard look Sept. 26. Maybe it got whacked out there, and the thing has gone haywire. Send up the replacement.
charles nelson says:
September 2, 2011 at 11:43 pm …
Charles, you did not direct us to a website or a place where contributions could be submitted.
Dear Roy,
Not being internet savvy(me I mean) what do you think would be the best way to do this?
I hear what you’re saying though!
Thanks.
It is Labour Day on Monday in the US (English spelling) and the way Obama is going there will soon be no labour working to celebrate the holiday. (Apart from EPA employees)
Ken Smith says:
September 2, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Watched all four. Thanks Ken.
I have some good news. I’m pretty sure that I’ve solved the whole global warming thing.
I’ve been looking at a few hockey stick graphs recently, and I noticed something about them. The point where the handle of the stick joins the blade is about at the time that the thermometer record begins.
In other words, temperatures started shooting up when we began sticking thermometers all over the place. Don’t you get it? It’s the thermometers! They’re causing the warming! I’m pretty sure that if we destroy all the thermometers, this global warming thing will just go away.
Some interesting thoughts from Martin Durkin.
THE REAL GLOBAL WARMING CONSENSUS (or ‘Why Intellectuals Hate Capitalism’)